Most automotive vehicles have a service brake system applied by means of a foot pedal. Such service brakes were actuated mechanically on early model vehicles. At the current time, however, service brakes are most often applied by means of hydraulic, electro-hydraulic, or air power. Parking brakes, on the other hand, are typically mechanically applied via a lever. In early vehicles, such levers were extremely long devices designed to be grasped by the driver and pulled back to set the parking brake.
In many vehicles produced today, a parking brake lever is mounted in a center console between two front seating positions of the vehicle, such that the vehicle driver is able to pull up on the lever to set the parking brake. Unfortunately, this arrangement demands a great deal of space in the vehicle's center console, which space could otherwise be devoted to more productive uses. Although a foot pedal actuator will save precious space within the vehicle's center console, a special problem arises in the context of smaller vehicles, because although it is possible to mount a parking brake with a foot pedal, say to the cowlside panel located to the driver's extreme left, it is sometimes not possible to mount the pedal while providing adequate clearance for the driver's outboard leg. An internally articulated parking brake pedal according to the present invention solves the problem of packaging a foot-operated parking brake, which by definition is not mounted within the center console of the vehicle, thereby providing additional space for other uses within the vehicle.